


Two Drifters, Off To See The World

by Duck_Life



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics)
Genre: Beginnings, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 19:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4757504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tiny moment about how these two started out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Drifters, Off To See The World

They’re lying in bed and there’s nothing awkward or uncomfortable—or, even, sexy—about it. It’s nice. It’s simple. It’s a hell of a lot easier now that she’s not half horse.

And it’s weird, because she can’t stop thinking about how eleven-year-old Dawn would feel. She’d have so many butterflies in her stomach that she’d resemble that old Elefun the Elephant game. She’d be quaking with nervousness.

Present-day Dawn just feels warm. Warm, and safe, and happy. So for some reason she thinks it’s a good idea to ask, “Do you just like me because I’m like Buffy?”

Xander blinks. (Or, technically, winks, she thinks.) “What now?” They’re spaced out on the mattress, balanced on opposite edges and tilted up on their sides, mirrored all the way to the foot of the bed.

“Well,” Dawn says, regretting everything, “you used to like Buffy. And you like me.” She’s mildly pleased to say this with complete conviction. “And, you know, because of the whole… ‘I was made from her’… extravaganza.”

“What kind of an extravaganza involves monks?”

“Shut up.”

“Buffy’s great,” he says. “Sweet girl, spectacular hair. But I don’t like you because you’re like her. I like you because you’re like you.” When he stops talking, she raises her eyebrows expectantly. “Like…” he continues with a smile, “I like how you’ll do anything to help people you care about. Even if it’s illegal. And stupid. _Especially_ if it’s illegal and stupid. I like how you dress the way you want and not the way that’s popular.”

“That sounds kind of backhanded,” Dawn says.

“Nah, you’re just taking it the wrong way,” he assures her, and she rolls her eyes. “I like how you stand by your poor decisions.” Again, she glares at him. “And I like,” he says, reaching out and running a finger down the bridge of her nose, “how your nose crinkles up when you smile.”

“That’s cliché,” she says, but she’s almost whispering. “Everybody’s nose does that.”

“Yeah, but yours does it the cutest.”

They stay that way for a long moment, barely connected, with him reaching across the empty space between them, still touching her nose like he could be smudging away some dirt. “Do you remember,” Dawn says, “what you said to me in the high school? The night everything went into the crater. Do you remember what you said before all the fighting started?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he says. Like he’s not even thinking about it, he lets his hand drop lower, until that one index finger linking them is brushing the corner of her mouth. “I said, ‘it’s still not too late to run away.’”

He moves until he’s touching the center of her mouth, like he could be shushing her. When she talks, he can feel her lips moving. “It’s still not too late to run away.”

“I know,” he says, and kisses her.

It’s been almost two months now, watching this almost-could-be-sort-of-maybe _thing_ with Xander slowly make itself known. And the whole time she hasn’t stopped thinking about eleven-year-old Dawn. The little girl with the big crush on her big sister’s best friend.

Well. That girl wasn’t even real. Dawn doesn’t owe her anything. Whatever happens now happens because of how she feels _now_.

She feels real, and warm, and happy, and she feels like she’d very much like to kiss Xander again. 


End file.
